Endgame Barding Guide by Ghlin
Category:Guides Ok so what do we need to get the right amounts? Attaining 24 String Skill for Max String Ballad Range All Gear choral justaucorps+1 (+6), bard's slippers (+3), musical earring (+5), string earring (+3), string torque (+7) = 24 String or (taillefer's dagger & minstrel's coat) or Some Merits 3 string merits (+6), bard's slippers (+3), musical earring (+5), string earring (+3), string torque (+7) = 25 String Advantage here is you can keep Vermillion Cloak on while casting. Attaining +58 Singing/Wind Skill for Madrigal All Gear chanter's staff (+4), astute cape (+5), demon helm+1 (+6), choral cuffs+1 (+10), nereid ringx2(+6), musical earring (+5), singing earring (+3), oracle's pigaches (+5), choral cannions +1 (+8), minstrel's coat (+3), wind torque (+7) = +62 (4 extra) With 8/8 Singing, 14 points can be cut. Some Merits w/ the fewest/easiest items to get 8 singing merits, chanter's staff, demon helm+1, wind torque, musical earring, singing earring, minstrel's coat, choral cuffs +1, nereid ringx2 = 60 Alternatively, remove minstrel's coat and demon helm+1, and add choral cannions +1, and you reduce total items needed by 1, and you can keep vermilion on at all times. Adding Wind Merits, too, reduces items needed obviously. Attaining 25 singing/string for Tier 2 Etudes 8/8 Singing 3/8 String puts you at 16+6 or 24, so either get another string, or simply macro in one of your many singing or string skill pieces. For myself, I personally like 3/8 String for the simple reason that you can do string ballads while mantaining a solid idle set that has your Vermillion Cloak on. But, if max range isn't important to you, you can still do a good String ballad that only has 14' range and maintains idle set. Again, you can also do Max Range from gear alone, but you don't maintain an idle set. I'd say if you're with the BLMs a lot, you'll be doing a lot of string songs. String Ballad and String Horde. This makes String merits invaluable to you. Additionally, if you have ample string merits, you can stick String Threnody (Sorrowful Harp) which would give you more powerful Threnodies. The usefulness of that is up for grabs as Macc testing is very tricky, but we do know that it's better. String and Wind merits depend on what you will be doing as bard. So maybe hold off on String and Wind merits til you find your place. Focus on finishing 8/8 Singing, and Group 1 and 2. After you're done with those, then decide how you want to do String and Wind if you decide to do them at all. The 500/100 Build I'm sure you've heard of the 320/120 build that BLMs aim for. BRDs use a similar thought process. However, bard skill is comprised of a combination of Singing+Instrument Skill and CHR. It's a bit different, but your numbers work-out a lot the same. Magic Accuracy testing has shown a lot over the years, and we now have a solid model to create ideal resist rates. Additionally, a lot of gear has been released that allows BRD to really mix and match to create a personal and ideal set. The 500/100 model means 500 combined skill (and macc+ gear) and 100 total chr. To attain this, you'll need around +50 Skill. Also, you'll need about +30 CHR. Ideally, you'll hit 510/110 and eventually 520/120 if you're really aiming to do hard things. Of note, Magic Accuracy +1 is the same as Skill +1. Why 100 CHR? The concept is that CHR is 1:1 for Magic Accuracy up to a certain inflection point. Most difficult monsters have around 100 of each stat, including CHR. So against most high level things, your breaking point will be around 100 CHR or less. Any extra CHR is at 2:1 for Magic Accuracy, so CHR is always useful, but not *as* useful as Skill/Macc after a certain point. Also, some very hard monsters may have more than 100 CHR. I will provide a walmart build that you can add to yourself later with EG gear as you acquire it. Terra's Staff, Earth Grip, Iron Ram Horn Demon Helm +1, Wind Torque, Melody Earring +1, Melody Earring +1 Errant Hpl., Choral Cuffs, Nereid Ring, Nereid Ring Jester's Cape +1, Gleeman's Belt, Sha'ir Seraweels, Sha'ir Crackows This build will cost around 2 Million gil total. Add Apollo's staff/Light Grip and V.Cloak and you're around 3 Million gil total. That's not bad, guys. SAM for example drops 3M on Hagun alone. You don't even want to know what their WS Macro costs. RDM and BLM have to own almost all HQ Staves. Not to mention they have to buy more torques than you and have multiple builds. So, you're actually getting off pretty cheap. Ok how good is this build? CHR 70+50 Skill 450+24 and 8/8 singing puts you at +42 Skill/Macc so you're at 492/120. 20 Extra CHR is like Macc+10 as well. So you're at a pseudo 500/100 build. It's not perfect, but it will work against most resistant things to a point. It's CHR heavy because Macc/Skill gear is more exotic. This walmart build, as you can see, is mostly CHR gear because that's all you can really get from the AH. But that's ok. This is a good start and you'll have very favorable resists for just about everything that you do. If you do Sky Gods, do /BLM and use Horn +1 and you'll be fine. You're probably not ready for the Wyrm scene yet, but again, this is a good start. Also note that the 500/100 build is before HQ staff. Again, HQ staves are a must for playing EG. Expansion Pack, and Add-on Rewards One last thing to close this discussion of gear are the Single Choice Items from Add-ons and Expansions. I'll just give my suggestions. Dvine Might - Doesn't matter, but Suppanomimi could be good for your Joyeuse if you ever get one. You knew that already though. Apoc Nigh - Magnetic is probably your best. Good for macro-ing in on spells for conserve mp. But honestly, doesn't matter. Get ethereal or hollow for another job if it's better for those. CoP - Again, doesn't matter. Tamas might be nice for SS build. Don't choose Tamas over Rajas/Sattva for other jobs. Unless you're absolutely die-hard BRD. You knew this already too. AUM - Balrahn's Ring is huge. Strive for this ring. Nyzul Isle and Salvage are a big part of EG. This ring is also +4 macc outside of those events. In those events, though, it's a bomb. Must have. ACP - Redingote is very good for BRD. You can do Fast Cast and Macc+4 and it's literally the *best* body for bard bar none. Marduk's is arguably better b/c you can maintain refresh if you build around it, but Redingote is still .5 Macc more accurate. It also doesn't cost 10 Million gil. You can also do Macc+4 and any other stat on it, if you say have SCH to consider, or RDM to consider. The Fast Cast isn't a must-have. But the Macc+4 is. It's a shame they didn't have refresh as an option. MKE - Nothing really exciting here. Best bet is probably MND+6, Cure potency, and fast cast. But again, that's not that exciting. You'd use it for SS macro, cure macro, and precast macro. If you have a DPS job, the WSing built Anwig or Gallea (STR+5 WSacc+15 acc+10 attk+5) is way more useful for those jobs. ASA - Must-have. Absolute must-have. Movement+8% is the key stat. Doing Cure Potency could be good. Doing Physical Damage Reduction could be good. Song Recast could be good. A lot of options for you here. But make sure you get this for your Idle build. Things You Probably Didn't Know About Bard Charisma Does not Affect Buff Potency - This is a very common misconception. Buff potency is purely from Singing Skill + Instrument Skill. Most songs are capped at 75, but a few are not. They are Tier 2 Etudes, Madrigal, and Minuet. Some Songs we don't know about. Dragonfoe Mambo, Archer's Prelude, for example, are nearly impossible to test. To be safe, I stack all my Skill gear when I cast them. Song Casting Time -% and Fast Cast are Not that Great - I mentioned this earlier, but both of these stats are actually not that big of a deal for BRD. They're best used in a precast macro where you equip all of them before casting, and then equip stat gear over them for resist rates or buff potency. Or in some cases, equip right back into idle. Do not worry about buying a Sha'ir Manteel. String Magic Skill affects the AoE Range of Buffs - A lot of bards discount the fact that Ballad for a BLM party is best cast with a String Ballad set. A bard can get a 15' range on Ballad II which can help make sure each BLM gets Ballad efficiently. Key word is Efficiently. Yes, you can Cast Wind Ballad twice, I agree. However, time wasted doing that is time taken away from status curing, heals, or crowd control. Additionally, a solid string ballad set is useful for putting Ballad on multiple tanks while avoiding AoE. If AoE are extremely dangerous, or melees are in a situation where they're constantly spread-out, best to do a string set-up for all buffs. I admit this is rare, but Sarameya comes to mind, or any monster that casts -Aga 3. Or Sheep in Antlion's Clothing where people are constatly spreading out. There are situations for this, albeit, rare ones. But again, your main ones to consider are String Ballad and String Horde which you will definitely use. Nursemaid's Harp is the best Instrument to cast Horde Lullaby - Try it with Capped String skill and a few String Skill items such as String Torque and String Earring. You'll see the difference. Both pieces are extremely cheap but very good for this build. The AoE Range is dramatically greater than Mary's Horn. Cradle's Horn is great, but its range is still going to be just as narrow. Have a macro for Nursemaid's Horde, Mary's Horde, and Mary's Foe. Use them in different situations. Tier 2 Etudes Fade over Time - Etude 2s give +19 stat but they decay at 1 stat every 10 seconds. This requires them to be cast again and again if you wish to implement them to full effect. Capping Madrigal Is Very Difficult - Most BRDs may think that their Madrigal is capped. The case is that it probably is not unless they have 8/8 singing and 8/8 wind. Even then, a bard still needs to have a lot of skill equipped to hit +30 Acc on Blade Madrigal. He needs a total of +58 Skill to cap Madrigal. Capped merits is only +32, so you're still a ways off. In the basic requirements section, I show a few ways to get to capped Madrigal. +1/2 On an instrument does two Things: Increases Buff Potency and Buff Duration - +1 for potency on a buff is buff-to-buff in terms of how much it augments. But a constant is that +1 on an instrument is +10% Duration. Songs last 2 minutes, so +10% duration works out to be about 12 seconds. A Song's Remaining Time Determines The Stacking Order for New Songs - In many cases First In, First Out applies when casting songs. That is, if a bard casts March1, March2, and then Minuet4,Minuet3 that the songs on the party will be Minuet4 and Minuet3. The First Ins were the First Out. Right? Yes, this is the case. However, the reason this is the case is that March and Minuet both have a +2 Instrument. This gives their duration identical times, but what is actually happening is that the first March has the least remaining time which makes it the song that gets replaced. Ok let's try again. March2, March1, and then Ballad2, Ballad1. Songs on party should be Ballad2 and Ballad 1, right? No, this is absolutely not the case. The reason for this is that Ballad doesn't have a +2 instrument. This makes its duration significantly less (24 seconds less) than the Marches. When you cast Ballad2, it replaces the song with The Least Remaining Time on its Duration. This is March 2. After casting Ballad2, it comes into play with 2:00 on its timer and the March 1 still has 2:16 about on its timer. So when you cast Ballad1, it does the same thing, it will replace the song with the least remaining time on its duration. In this case, it's the Ballad 2. So in this situation you have Ballad 1 and March 1 on. How to prevent this? There are two ways. Way 1 is the quick bandaide fix. It is Always Cast Ballad 1 before Ballad 2. I personally don't like this, but I could see it working for some people. Cast Ballad1, ballad2, ballad1, and you'll always get Double Ballad on your party if a mage snags a melee song by mistake. The better method imho, is to just wait. Wait 17 seconds after casting your melee songs, then start your ballads. Look at the timers. March 2 and March 1 are just cast. March 2 has 2:16 and March 1 has 2:24. I wait 17 seconds. I cast Ballad 2 (takes 8 seconds), it replaces March 2. I have Ballad 2 with 2:00 on it and I have March 1 with 1:59 on it. See what happened? Now when I cast Ballad 1, it replaces March 1 which has the least remaining time on its duration. So if you just space-out your ballads properly, you'll never have a problem with this. Another useful thing to do with this is to use Troubodour and witness Songs not even replacing songs at all. If you have a Song that has a greater duration than a new song, that is, a Duration of 2:25 or greater left on it (which is possible with Troubodour), the song will not replace it at all. As long as a Troubodour'd song has 2:25 remaining on it or more, it will not be replaced by new songs. This can be useful if you want to keep a certain buff on someone, but the long recast timer on Troubodour makes this a rarely (if ever) used Trick. Soul Voice Must Be Used BEFORE Casting Songs - Soul Voice does not retroactively increase songs. That is, buffs that are already active will not become more powerful when you use Soul Voice. Soul Voice'd Songs stay Powered Well After Soul Voice the ability wears off - Many bards know this, but this is here for completeness. Soul Voice lasts 3 minutes, but buffs last 2.5 minutes. It is possible to do 2 song cycles with Soul Voice for a total of 5 minutes of soul voice. Additionally, if you use Troubodour for the second cycle, you get a total of 7 minutes of soul voice. This is incredibly useful in Apollyon as you get your 2hr back on every floor. It's also a great place to practice it. I recommend doing your second cycle 2 minutes after using Soul Voice. Use a stop watch. Troubodour Affects Lullaby - In a bind, Lullaby duration can be doubled with Troboudour. Do not hesitate to use this if you feel it necessary. +1 on Mary's Horn only adds +3 seconds of lullaby - This is a very marginal, and often, unnecessary amount of sleep duration. Often in merit parties your monster will not wake up prior to being engaged. In high resist situations, pulling a resist is worse than losing 3 seconds on lullaby duration. I'm not saying that Mary's Horn shouldn't be used, but I am saying that it's not the end-all be-all. Of course, Cradle Horn is. This is especially true since it has CHR+1 on it. Carnage Elegy is 50% Slow - Carnage Elegy is one of the most powerful debuffs in the game. It should be a priority in every event. Horn+1 only gives it 2% extra slow (52% total) and Longer duration, and that's not very much. I recommend trying Iron Ram Horn for high resist situations where you're not /blm. Finale's Favorite Stat is Haste - I don't know if you're doing this on your bard yet, but stack haste and nothing but haste when you cast Finale. This is an absolute must as Finale has a very long recast. Also the military harp is garbage. Don't use it, use Angel's Lyre. One Bard can Buff 2 or more Parties - This is an often forgotten ability of bard. Even some LSes don't implement soul voice on multiple parties when it's available. To party swap, it's very very simple. First there are some limitations. You can't really do more than 6 songs reliably. 8 would be outof the question unless all you wanted to do was go back and forth casting songs. You'd also distract people by needing to be invited constantly which is a small thing, but something worth noting. Think about it, 8 seconds to cast a song is 8*6 64 seconds which is a minute. Running back and forth is about a second per song, so that's 8 more seconds. Ballad only lasts 2 minutes. So you're at 70-80 seconds on an 8 buff cycle. That will keep you extremely busy. If all you want to do is buff, though, it's doable. Ok so you're limited to around 6 songs in most situations, and honestly, if you set-it-up right, you won't need to do more than that anyways. you have a party that only needs ballad, you have a party that needs ballad and another 2 songs. that's the ideal set-up. for example, a melee party that has only a whm in it or a rdm. or a blm party and a tank party. keep those parties at 5 members and designate someone who isn't really busy as an inviter (or someone who is good at it). Make this macro twice for each party leader invite me /pcmd leave /t NameOfLeader ((Please Invite Me)) a macro that just does /join could be useful as well. Have the leaders each make this macro invite bard /pcmd add YourName You can actually begin casting your song shortly after hitting the 'invite me' macro, and if you /join before the song is finished, the song will hit the new party. This can be extremely useful to your LS if you can do this. This turns 1 bard into 2. This is best when you don't need to do any sleeps/status heals/cures etc so you're mostly just there to buff and elegy. Read: BRD/BLM. One final tip is for if you're casting the same songs for both parties, to use haste gear on your song macros. This can be instrumental in pulling off the 6 or 8 song cycles as the recast will hold you back if you don't have haste. Also, a bard could theoretically buff three parties. Balladx2 for each party and x2 buff for another. You'd need a good amount of haste for string ballads, but you could pull it off. (It wouldn't have to be ballad, but that's usually what will be needed/wanted.) You could easily buff two/three melee parties too. It's just you don't necessarily want to be in aoe range for very long (esp if you're /blm). Pianissimo isn't the best way to put Ballad on a PLD - Anyone who believes this is sorely mistaken. The best way is to have the party set-up so that ballad can be cast aoe on both the mages and the pld at the same time. If you need to show your party this diagram, type it out exactly like this: mages brd pld> and ' - Most people are not aware of these. They are select alliance and select party. They do not put a cursor over the target, and they prevent blinking. Use them. '''Waits of .5' - A lot of people aren't aware you can put /wait 1.5 for example. This can be useful at times. Windower Macro'ing - It's simple. In the script folder create a .txt file with lines that say 'input /equip slot "item". Load the .txt file in a macro line with /console exec "file.txt" in it. Idle Macro - 100% Must have. Equip Terra's Staff, Vermillion Cloak. Anything extra is only going to help, albeit only marginally. Precast Macro - Hit before casting a spell, then hit spell macro. Spell puts all casting gear on. If you're on windower, put /console exec "bard/precast.txt" as the first line of all of your spells. Lullaby Macro - Have three. Foe Lullaby w/ Mary's Horn. Horde Lullaby with Mary's Horn. Horde Lullaby with Nursemaid's Harp. Finale Macro - Equip all Haste. Note that Angel's Lyre has +2% Haste. For some EG though, some monsters are resistant to finale, and you should use Iron Ram Horn instead. 99% of things you do, finale being resisted is not an issue though. Erase/Status Cure Macro - Similar to Finale. Use all Haste gear, but also use Conserve MP gear. Some people like to type-out status cures. this is totally great if you like to do it that way. whatever you have to do to efficiently status cure, do it. Cure Macro - Cure Potency, Haste, and Conserve MP. Enmity- Gear is ok too, but I wouldn't worry about it. Stoneskin Macro on Console - It would be bad to have 3 macros dedicated to casting stoneskin. But, you gotta do what you gotta do. I won't hate someone for not doing this though. Pianissamo - A lot of bards make a pianissamo macro and then have all of their songs as . I disagree with this. Make a few songs that you pianissamo and put them on a seperate page that's easy to get to. I have them below my main page. Examples would be Mambo, Ballad, Minuet3 (for a ranger), and possibly Minne and March. Carol isn't a bad idea either. This makes all of your spells faster to cast. Why spend all of this gil/effort on items to decrease casting time if your macros cost you an extra second to execute? Think. It should look like this: /equip instrument /console exect 'precast.txt' /ja Pianissamo /wait 1 /song song NameOfTarget/ /console exec 'castinggear.txt' Type the name into the macro if you know it beforehand. Remember: Planning is a big part of implementation on bard. Event Specific Tips Dynamis - For cities, resist rates are very favorable. consider even walahra turban for foe. work builds around sha'ir gages. string horde should still have a very high resist build on because of the nature of string debuffing. MP builds are useful at times, but not necessary depending on numbers. keep SS and Blink constant. timing sleeps can be completely irrelevant as a lot of sleeps will be replaced with sleep 2 or sleepga 2. but you'll still be on the frontline sleeping things. for outlands and dreamworld, plan on high resists. carnage elegy will be resisted by bosses in xarcabard often. 2-3 casts usually will make it stick. Understand the 3 bard cycle may be used to zerg some things (see below) Einherjar - just started einherjar. but bard is very important for sleeps. high resist build. try to get a corsair for warlock's roll. again ss and blink are constant. 3 bard buff cycle will likely be used to zerg the boss. 3 bard buff cycle is each bard does soul voice, 2 songs, swaps party, 2 same songs, swaps party, 2 same songs. Very simple. Limbus - 1 BRD buffing 2 parties can be used to great effect here because you're usually trying to low man it. BRD sleeps are still important, so you'll have to keep it to a 4 song cycle if jumping, but usually that's all you're doing. Ballad for BLMs, March/Minuet for melee. RDM (or WHM/SCH healer) can stand alone w/o ballad. Make a Pinao Ballad2 macro anyways though. Remember the SV trick to extend duration as you get to use it on each floor of apollyon. HNM/ZNM/etc - Nm to Nm, but I want to talk a minute about the power of Mambo. NIN and BRD can duo or trio with a rdm or whm a lot of NMs. I'm talking Charybdis, Kreutzet, and the list goes on. I've ran into a BRD that didn't have Dragonfoe Mambo b/c he didn't think it was worth it. Trust me, it's one of your most powerful spells, so make sure you have it. Double Mambo and Double March for a ninja can be extremely good against many NMs. Consensus is that fighting HNMs that Evasion is a waste, but I disagree. While I wouldn't say full mambo is always the best route, I could see 2 brds with Mambox2/Marchx2 being very good. A good example is Hydra (while not a big deal) is very easy to evade against (compared to other HNM). I've also read that Marchx2/Mambox2 is key if doing NIN tank against Byakko. Against a lot of HNM you can do your BRD/BLM, but Wyrms, for example, absolutely musthave /WHM. Also note that the less members you have the more /WHM is needed. So, more often than not, you'll be BRD/WHM. Sky - This is where your /BLM will be used. And I've already talked a lot about this, but elemental seal+troubodour+elegy is very useful. Some LSes use Fire Carol on suzako, so pack your crumhorn (buy one if needed) when you go to sky just in case your LS wants it. I've read that Marchx2/Mambox2 is key if doing NIN tank against Byakko. So pack your gemshorn as well. Merit Parties - A lot of things change for merit parties. Resist rates are not extremely low at either collibri or mmj. But, they're low enough (esp after 8/8 singing) that you should full time walahra and even build around sha'ir. I even use Swift Belt. Haste is useful for pulling for shadows and lullaby recast. Before you get 8/8 singing though, make sure you keep a good resist build up. Using Shadows is a very important concept. I'm NIN75, so I didn't have trouble doing brd/nin at all. But some bards may. This is especially true for bards who stopped nin dead at 37 and never really tanked on nin for real. The concept is fairly simple. Use Ichi as base, and Ni for emergencies. Going ichi to ichi is ideal, and ichi - ni - ichi - ni is used when you're against something highly accurate or fast attacking. In merit parties, though, you're never tanking, so ichi to ichi is almost never going to be a problem. So, when you need to put-up shadows for a pull, use Ichi unless time is an issue, and Ni is then good for that emergency. Keeping up a 3 song cycle is about the most you should try to do. A 4th song might be piano minuet for a rng or prelude for a rng. I also recommend having piano ballad 1 on hand, but piano ballad 2 should be enough if you have a good mage and a good party. Here's how to do it. Get it to where you have a monster1 at camp that's slept and monster2 that's being fought. Cast song 1, wait til monster1 is killed and they engage monster2, then pull monster3, sleep monster3, cast Ichi right away, cast song2, wait til monster2 is dead and they engage monster3, pull monster4, cast ichi right away, cast piano ballad, repeat. So you pull, ichi, song1, pull, ichi, song2, pull, ichi, song3. Why cast ichi right away? The reason for this is twofold. One, it makes sure you have a constant shadow wall. And 2, if you pull a resist, you may not see it in the log right away for a lot of reasons, and if you cast ichi right away, it will give keep you alive in the event of a resist. IF You Do Find Yourself in this situation, at MMJ you can cast Mary's Horn Horde and you're fine. But at Birds, you can't use Horde. So what you have to do is shadow tank for a second. If you cast Ichi right away, you'll have those extra shadows. Cast any spell on it, such as a threnody, and that will buy you a second if you need it. Count your shadows. As soon as the last shadow is taken away, cast Ni, and you should be fine. It will however mess with your cycle. So after they engage the new monster, cast your song, then cast ichi, then pull, and try to get yourself back to where you need to be. if a song wears, don't sweat it. surviving is more important than the song cycle. a strong merit party can keep the chain w/ only 1 (or sometimes none) of their songs. One more big tip about merit party pulling is Lamiabane. I highly recommend you do Assault til you are rank high enough to get lamiabane. the advantage of having a thrown returns for pulling is huge. pulling is now at a max range of 24' over 21' on elegy. if you cast elegy at 21' and the monster moves to 22', the pull is canceled. if you start throwing at 24' and the monster moves to 25' the throw and pull will still go through. this is significant as it lets you pull at max range which saves time running which makes pulls more consistent and faster. the other advantage is at colibri, and it's obvious, but they won't reflect a thrown weapon. also, you won't have them reflecting elegy in the first place. casting elegy at birds as a defensive song is nice, but how often does a reflected elegy go for a long time not getting erased? does your party even need the defense of elegy? more often than not, they don't. pulling w/ a lamiabane at colibri is a much better way. of note, you can pull w/ lamia bane and elegy it at camp and it's still faster/better than just pulling w/ elegy. Nyzul Isle - i mentioned earlier that brd/nin might be ok for nyzul isle. my reasoning is that playstyle is huge here. it greatly depends on how your party does nyzul isle. if you split-up, brd/nin is probably worse b/c you may need to do cures. if you stay as one, brd/nin would be good for fast pulling which would be needed. also, brd/nin has magic-aggro-less sneak/invis which might be nice. brd/nin may also be ok for meleeing, and if any EG environment would be ok for brd melee it would be nyzul isle. note that i don't condone this, but if your group does it that way, go for it. i'm not going to bash you for doing something new. but 9 times outof 10 you'll be brd/whm for nyzul isle. and it's a much different game for bard because it's a pretty different game for most jobs. bard in nyzul isle can't really keep a song cycle per se. there's too much running around to do this. if you have a sam, keep both etudes on hand, and watch their TP. if you can, drop etude on them before they WS. keeping march/minuet up is almost impossibl esometimes, but do it whenever you can. this is where 5/5 nightingale and troub will be invaluable to you as you'll get to use them twice per run. if you plan to use brd in nyzul, get those two up soon as you'll benefit from them greatly. i don't have too many tips though because each floor is so different. some floors need a low resist, high haste build, and some need a high resist build. it's different floor to floor, so plan on mixing it up. i personally use my high resist build by default because high haste is only Nice (not integral) when it's best. i talked about situations where people will be spread-out and string buffs are useful at this time. this is true of nyzul isle as well, and it may not be the worst idea to have a string march and string minuet macro available. remember weak buffs are better than no buffs at all. a quick tip too, is how to cast reraise at the start. before being pulled in, type out /ma Reraise and press enter. As you're zoning, spam spacebar, up arrow, enter. keep spamming it til you can see your character. it will have actually cast /ma reraise even though it says 'you can't cast spells right now' and you'll zone-in with your character finishing casting reraise. after you cast reraise, run away from the entry pole and box and cast your ballads back there. speaking of ballad, Storm Fife works here and is huge here. Make sure to get one before starting up your nyzul static because both events suck-up assault tags. Level Sync Parties - I'm actually going to talk more about this in the 'leveling bard to 75' section, but even in an EGLS you may find yourself playing bard in a level sync or level cap event. I mentioned already about how brd is weak pre55. at 55 however, it's a bomb for exp. bird camps come to mind, and that's probably what you'll be doing if you're brd for a level sync party. madrigal/minuet for melees is a good combination. also, i mentioned how to ballad a paladin. tell everyone this before you start: mages pld>